In 1682, after the first hard years of settlement, the Proprietors ordered
three counties laid out. Berkeley County, centering around Charleston,
extended from the Stono River on the south to Seewee Creek (present-day
Awendaw Creek) where it emptied into Bulls Bay on the north. Craven County
lay north of Berkeley, and below Berkeley, Colleton extended to the Combahee
River. Later, a fourth county, Granville, was laid out between the Combahee
and the Savannah rivers.

Throughout the colonial period, the small population and its limited legal
needs kept most government, records keeping, and judicial activity confined
to the municipal limits of Charleston. Parishes of the established Anglican
Church served as election districts, and courts with jurisdiction over the
entire colony sat in Charleston.

Georgetown extended from the North Carolina line to
the Santee. Charleston lay between the Santee and the Combahee. Beaufort sat
between the Combahee and the Savannah. Northwest of Georgetown was the
Cheraws District, bounded on the west by Lynches River; west of the Cheraws
was the large district of Camden, bounded on the west by the river system of
the Santee, Congaree, and Broad; south and west of Camden, two more large
districts extended to the Savannah River--Orangeburg to the south, and
Ninety-Six to the north.

The 1785 act gave the Cheraws District the counties of
Chesterfield, Marlboro, and Darlington; it divided Camden District into
York, Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster, Richland, Claremont, and Clarendon
counties. It gave Ninety-Six District the counties of Spartanburg, Union,
Laurens, Newberry, Abbeville, and Edgefield. And it divided Orangeburg
District into Orange, Lewisburg, Lexington, and Winton (an early version of
Barnwell) counties.

In 1786, part of the unorganized Indian land, which
had been taken from the Cherokee Indians during the American Revolution and
lay northwest of Ninety-Six District, became Greenville County; in 1789, the
remainder of the Indian land became Pendleton County. A few counties
had been set out in the three Low Country districts of Georgetown,
Charleston, and Beaufort, but there, where the old parish system was well
established, the counties failed to take root.

In 1791, the four Orangeburg counties were abolished,
and two new districts were created. Washington District was formed to
encompass the counties of Greenville and Pendleton. Pinckney District
took York and Chester counties from Camden District, and Spartanburg and
Union counties from Ninety-Six District.

In 1800, most of the counties were formed into
districts. Washington, Pinckney Ninety-Six, Camden, and the Cheraws
districts vanished, and the counties they had encompassed became districts.
Claremont, Clarendon, and Salem counties became Sumter District. Marion
District was formed from part of Georgetown, Colleton District from part of
Charleston, and Barnwell District from part of Orangeburg. Georgetown
yielded Horry District in 1801 and Williamsburg District in 1804. That same
year, Lexington District was formed from Orangeburg with roughly the same
territory as the old county of the same name.

In 1878, Hampton County emerged from part of Beaufort;
in 1882, part of Charleston became Berkeley County; and in 1888, parts of
Marion, Darlington, Williamsburg, and Clarendon merged to become Florence
County. In 1895, Saluda County was created from part of Edgefield. In 1897,
Bamberg emerged from Barnwell; Cherokee from parts of Spartanburg, Union,
and York; Dorchester from Berkeley and Colleton; and Greenwood from parts of
Abbeville and Edgefield. In 1902, Lee emerged from parts of Darlington,
Kershaw, and Sumter.

Franklin County was never a part of Oconee
County, South Carolina (or its predecessor counties or district). A 5000-acre
tract in the fork of the Keowee and Chattooga-Tugaloo rivers at the head of
the Savannah River was claimed by Georgia, because the Royal Charter fixed its
boundary as the most northerly branch of the Savannah River, which was the
Keowee. However, South Carolina claimed the area as well. Both states
appointed three commissioners in order to meet and settle the matter. They
met on 28 April 1787 and signed a document known as the Beaufort Convention.
The convention fixed the Chattooga-Tugaloo River (the western branch) as the
boundary, and South Carolina relinquished all claim to lands lying south and
southwest of the Savannah River and to all islands in that river. Georgia
already had made grants of land to settlers in the area, and South Carolina
agreed to confirm the grants, provided the claimants registered them within a
year.

An act approved by the Georgia legislature
on 25 February 1784 created Franklin County from the northern cession of
Cherokee Indian lands obtained through a treaty signed at Augusta in 1783.
The Beaufort Convention allotted the territory to South Carolina on 28 April
1787. Therefore, the 5000-acre tract remained a part of Franklin County for 3
years and 2 months.